I have been using Aucland for over 6 months now for buying a range of things from computers to C.D's and in my opinion it is one of the best British auction sites out there at the moment.
The layout is good with the mainpage providing a good overview to whats happening on the rest of the site. There is a search box positioned in the center an links to the main sections are positioned to the left with number indicators to show the amount of items up for sale. Clicking on these will take you into the various sub-catorgories, then into the items for sale. The links to the auctions are layed out below each other with the current highest bid, end date and a range of icons to indicate whether the item has a reserve price, whether there is a photo and how popular the item is. There is usually a good range of items in most sections being sold by both merchants and individuals. The auction page gives the overall rating of the seller and the number of items they have sold. It is a good idea to look at the sellers reviews to avoid any trouble later on. A good thing about Aucland is the fact that you don't need a credit card to be able to bid on all items, which is the case on auctions such as qxl, meaning the auctions are open to everybody.
Before you buy or sell anything you will need to sign up. This is a fairly painless process requiring you enter you address and telephone details and choose a bidding alias. Once registered they don't send you a newsletter or try to sell you other things.
The account section allows you to easily navigate through the items you are buying, selling or following. Bidding is extremely simple as well, you simply enter the maximum amount you are willing to spend and it will automatically increase your bid as the price increases, meaning you won't have to pay any more than neccessary. If you have placed the winning bid when the auction ends, you recieve a confirmation e-mail and the sellers information becomes available to you from within your account section allowing you to contact them to complete the sale. When buying, the seller will usually contact you before you get the chance and buying is usually straight forward, taking on average a couple of days to get everthing sorted. Once you have completed the sale you can rate the seller to help others in future. Aucland has not yet started to charge commission for selling but I beleive it plans to in the new year probably between 50p and a £1.
Another refreshing thing about Aucland is that it isn't filled with items starting at a £1 trying to fool people into bidding beyond their normal price. The only downside to the site is that in my experience a relatively high number of people drop out of buying but I don't think the site is on its own in that respect.
Overall this is a very good site, with bargains waiting to be found.
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Dec 6th, 2000
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